The Truth: Gender and Race in Retail Car Negotiations

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“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the nation’s benchmark civil legislation, and it continues to resonate in America. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

-United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

The Truth: Gender and Race in Retail Car Negotiations

Think about your first car buying experience. Think about how exciting it was to get behind a wheel of your new or used car. Now, think about the process that went into buying the car. Do you think you received the best deal for your car? What if the entire time, without even knowing, your salesperson was actually using inferences of past buyers of your gender or race to end up with the ‘so-called’ deal you received? There is research that will prove that discrimination still exists, more specifically, in retail car negotiations. There are already biases placed upon a buyer prior to walking through the doors of a car dealership. Not only are there biases of statistical inferences but also personal biases as well. We live in a world that is breaking free of the judgments our ancestors placed upon other during our upbringing. However, many still have yet to break free form that hatred. The evidence found on this topic will make buyers think twice about settling on an offer a dealership puts on the table.

There has been a tremendous change in gender equality over the past few decades. More specifically, women have proven to attain higher education and labor force participation than men. The gender gap is closing in a more and more and females are grabbing hold of positions once held by only men. The conservative mindset has been altered and we are experiencing great change in the job force...

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... ‘father study’) allowed many researchers to conduct their own research on race and gender discrimination. Many would agree with their research that discrimination amongst women and minorities still exists in car buying, and others, like Goldberg, believe there is no statistical inferences that confirm their hypothesis.

Works Cited

Refernces:

Ayres, Ian. "Fair Driving: Gender and Race Discrimination in Retail Car Negotiations." Harvard Law Rev. 104 (February 1991): 817-72.

Ayres, Ian, and Siegelman, Peter. "Race and Gender Discrimination in Bar-gaining for a New Car." A.E.R. 85 (June 1995): 304-21.

Dealer Price Discrimination in New Car Purchases: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey

Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg

Journal of Political Economy , Vol. 104, No. 3 (Jun., 1996) , pp. 622-654

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